PS4’s Chief Designer Talks About Creating “One Single PlayStation Identity”, Looking Good From Every Angle

October 10, 2013
Written by Jason Dunning

You already know Mark Cerny as the Lead System Architect of the PS4, creating the inside of what the new system will look like. As he’s already stated though, he hadn’t seen the final PS4 design until everyone else had, with Tetsu Sumii, Chief Designer of the UX Platform Design Group, being in charge of the PlayStation 4’s outside look.

For the design of the system, Tetsu told the PS Blog that his original concept was “totally different” to how the PS4 looks now and “when we started the product design for PS4, we didn’t start by thinking about what the shape would be. It was more about how we were going to create a new brand identity through the product.”

Sumii continued by discussing how he “just wanted to make a simple object for the living room” because “sometimes products are a little too exaggerated. It should be simple. That’s my thinking.” With that simplicity, he also wanted the PS4 to look good from every angle. “I think about the horizontal, not just the vertical,” he added. “I think about the 360 degree view. The reverse should be beautiful, too.”

Elaborating on that brand identity he mentioned earlier, Tetsu explained:

One of my tasks is to create one single PlayStation identity. I wasn’t just thinking about the console but also about the DualShock 4, the DualShock 4 Charging Station, the Vertical Stand, the Mono headset, PS Vita – everything.

I think the PlayStation brand image needs to be changed a little bit, as it’s a new console, and we have to show what we’re pointing towards for the future. So I thought it should be one of the most smart, cool, and intelligent products from Sony. Not just from Sony Computer Entertainment, but the company as a whole.

This should be one of the best, coolest, most sophisticated products we’ve created. That’s what we were striving for.